If you take your Bibles and turn
back with me to Galatians. Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. The text
again will be found in verse 17. The Scripture says they zealously
affect you, but not well. Yes, they would
exclude you that you might affect them, but it is good to be zealously
affected in a good thing, and not only when I am present with
you. Now the Apostle Paul in this
chapter again had declared the blessedness of our sonship, that
we who are believers in Christ are heirs according to the covenant
of God's promise. We are not servants. We're no
more servants. This should be good news, right?
We're no more servants. We're no more under the bondage
of the law, no more slaves. No more under tutors and governors,
but we are under the grace and mercy of God. We are now sons. And I've told you this before.
It's very important. He is using the term full-grown
sons. Why? Because those are the only
ones who inherit everything. Your little child, though you're
Lord of everything, you don't know anything. You don't know
that you're Lord of all. You're just like every other
child in the house. You're all under the same tutor
and governor, but at the time appointed, when God the Father
appointed our salvation, He appointed a time in which the Holy Spirit
would come to each one of His children and He would give us
His Spirit crying Abba, Father. Remember Abba was only used by
sons, true sons, not slaves, but sons. And he's instilling
this in the minds of these Galatian believers who desire to go back
under the law. And so he says this in verse
8, he says, How be it? He said, How be it? When you
knew not God, you did service unto them which are no gods.
But now, after you have known God, or rather known of God,
how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements? You were
under bondage, serving little sticks of wood. You were bowing
down to them as though they were God. And now, God's given you
the knowledge of the true and living God. He's made you free. He's made you sons. Why then
in the world, he's asking, why do you want to go back? Why do
you want to exchange one bondage for another? And this is what
they were doing. They're not worshipping idols
anymore, but what were they worshipping? They were worshipping their works,
their religion, their deeds, their circumcision. And he says,
why do you want to go back? You observe days and months and
times and years. And he says, look, I'm afraid
I'm afraid that you don't know Christ at all. This is how important this subject
is, this is not a this is not a side doctrine that they're
that they're disputing over. This is not something like eschatology,
where I believe Christ come in this time, I believe Christ come
in this That that could be a side thing that doesn't have anything
to do with our salvation. This is a key essential to the
gospel. It is either of grace or it is
of works. It cannot be of both. And once
you mix it, you are no longer preaching the gospel. And he
said, if you continue like this, I'm afraid I'm afraid you don't
know him at all. I'm afraid. of you, lest I bestowed
upon you labor in vain." But notice this, he didn't call them
heretics, he didn't call them fools. What did he say, brethren? Let's not be quick to call those
who have fallen heretics. Paul's still hoping. He's still
praying that they are brethren. He says, brethren, I beg you,
be as I am. I am as you are. Listen, I'm
a Jew, but I'm like you Gentiles. I'm not under the law of Moses.
He said, be like me. A true Jew was one that's spiritual
and not carnal. And so then what is he saying?
He's saying what he said in the previous chapter. There's neither
Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female. Look, you're
a son of God, I'm a son of God. You're a full grown heir of all
the promises of God. And so am I. We're the same.
We're the same. And then he appeals to their
their memory, he said, you know, verse 13, though in through infirmity
of my flesh, I preach the gospel to you. At first, And my temptation,
which was in my flesh, you despised not, nor rejected, but received
me as an angel of God, even as of Christ Jesus." You see, preaching
the gospel, that's how he came to him. He said, I came to you
preaching the gospel. Why? Because this is the purpose
of God in saving His people. How do you know about Jesus Christ?
How would you know about this covenant of grace if God had
not sent a preacher to you? Paul said, I preached. Yeah,
you recognized that I was weak. You recognized that I had problems,
that I had struggles. Paul had struggles, friends.
He was constantly, people were constantly trying to kill him.
He was hated and yet they didn't care. That didn't bother them. He said, even in my infirmities,
you loved me. Isn't this true about gospel
preachers when you first heard the gospel? Remember when you
heard. Remember when the gospel came to you in power Wasn't this
saying true? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. I'm so glad God sent a preacher
to me. I'm so thankful for my pastor.
I have a pastor in Houston and I'm so thankful for him. God
sent his word through that man to me. And I'll tell you, when
I remember receiving it, when I believed it, there was nothing
like it. I was so thankful. And he said,
look, you'd even plucked out your eyes for me. Now, why would
he say that? I thought, why would he? Because
he's saying you would pluck out your eyes in testimony that you
don't need your eyes because you see by faith. You see by
faith. So you're saying to me, I don't
need to see anything. Why? Because I believe. I believe
I don't need to see miracles. I don't need to see my works. I don't need to see anything
but Christ If you take my eyes, that's okay because I see I see
Christ And then verse 15 he asked where's
this blessedness you speak of See for I bear you record that
if it possibly plucked your eyes out and given it to me Am I therefore
become your enemy because I tell you the truth? So now why have
you turned on me? Why have you turned on me? Why
am I become an enemy? I'll tell you why, because I
tell you the truth. Listen, the truth is always the
enemy of the lie. It just always is. These two
cannot cohabitate. They just can't. If you compromise the truth,
it becomes a lie. In any measure, it becomes a
lie. These two cannot coexist. And
those who cling to the lie will hate to be exposed. They will
hate to be exposed. Our Lord said that, didn't he?
He said, they hate you. Don't this, they hated me before they
hated you. Why? Because I exposed them for
what they are. The truth always exposes the
lie. And what was the lie? The lie
was that salvation is by grace and works. That's the lie. Salvation
is by the death of Jesus Christ, by the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, and also by our obedience to the law. Now, that was the
lie. And Paul's telling them they're
not under the law. You're not a servant of the law.
You are either under the law or you're under grace. These
two covenants can't be mixed. And when I said that, you hate
me. Why do you hate me? I just telling you the truth. And notice now in verse 17, our
text. He starts to tell them about
these men that came in preaching that false gospel. Listen what
he says about them. He said, they zealously affect
you, but not well. Yes, they would exclude you for
this purpose that you might affect them. They affect you so that
you should affect them. And we're going to talk about
this zeal this morning. These false teachers came into
the church, and I'm telling you, they were on fire. They were
excited. They had something new to tell
you. Well, see, Paul, what he preached over here was really
good. We're not saying he's a bad guy. We're saying he preached
some good things. But I've got something new to
add to what he said. Oh, boy, everybody's getting
excited. Something new, wow. This is exciting. And they were
very sincere about it. They desired to zealously affect
this church. They weren't doing this accidentally.
They were doing it deliberately. These men desired to make an
impact on their community. Over the years, I've heard different
variations of that. You need to affect your community
for Jesus. You need to make an impact on
the world. The problem is they're not talking
about spiritual things. They desire to zealously affect
you only in outward show of religion. That believer that believers not be distinguished
by the gospel we preach. That doesn't have anything to
do with this. They don't desire to distinguish the believer by
the love of one another. Isn't that what Jesus said? He
said, you shall know my disciples in this, that you love one another.
That's how men's going to know you're my disciples. That you
have love for one another. They're going to know you by
the gospel that you preach. I remember this happening, I
don't have it here, but this occurred to me that when we were
at Zorn Avenue, you know, that building was built in 1900, right? And this lady came, I don't know
how far she drove. She drove down to look at our
building. She was with a historical society,
and she wanted to look at the stained glass windows and all
this. And you know what, she heard about this church. I never
heard her. Never knew anything about her.
And she knew this, that most of you were driving over 30 minutes
to get to this church. And she didn't understand why.
Why would they drive so far if their church is closer by their
house? And I began to tell her why.
And so then, she didn't like it. But she knew the distinction
was made. It's the gospel we preach. It's
the Christ we serve is not the same. That's why they do it. So we're distinguished by the
gospel we preach and by the love that we have for one another.
That's what distinguishes us. Not that we would put on priestly
robes or distinguish ourselves by cutting our hair a certain
way or that we don't go to a certain place. That doesn't distinguish
us. False religion people do that
all the time. What distinguishes us is Christ. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? Now tell me, who does it? Why
are you different? Who did it? You? But your outward
works, is that distinguishing? No, it's Christ. Who maketh thee
to differ from another? It's Christ. But they desire
not the spiritual thing, they desire to distinguish themselves
by an outward show of religion. Look at us. Look what we're doing.
Look how we're impacting our community. We're going to put
out a press release. We're going to put it all over
the place that we're giving to the poor in India. Anybody want
to come to our ministry? It's only going to cost you $4,000
to fly out there. Audrey School does this kind
of garbage. They said, hey, we want your children to go on a
mission trip. It's only going to cost you $2,400. Don't you
suppose maybe you should just give them the $2,400 and stay
at home? Don't you think they'd like that
better? No, they want to make their children
feel good about being religious. Look at me, I'm on a mission
trip. I'm doing this for Jesus. See how zealous they are in this?
They're zealous. They have a desire to affect
you. And so this is done by this zealous
effecting is done by courting the saints, pretending to care
about their souls by imposing law on them, by imposing these
works on them. These false preachers really
believe that in order to be now in this day, they really believe
that you needed to be circumcised to be a Jew. I don't doubt their
sincerity in it. So they went around the church
saying, you're not a real Jew. Eric, you're not a real Jew. You haven't
been circumcised yet. What did they do when they said
that, Eric? They excluded you, didn't they?
Who wants to be excluded? You see how they do it? They
exclude you so that you might want to affect them, be like
them. They exclude you. They said, you got to follow
the law of Moses. You believe on Christ. That's
good. That's necessary. But in order to be justified,
really justified, really be sanctified. If you got if you're going to
be sanctified, you got to have the law as your rule of life. And they were zealous about it.
They were zealous in this. Yes, you begin in the spirit,
but you got to finish this by flesh. You got to finish this
by obedience. They are very, very zealous and
sincere and fervent in their hearts, and they want to affect
the whole church by doing this, imposing law on you. I think about those Pharisees.
Jesus said, you impose this law on them, but you won't touch
it with a 10-foot pole. You yourselves, you don't obey
it, and yet you expect everybody else to. And so they begin to flatter.
This is how they get in. They flatter you. They beguile
you with good words. Paul says in
Romans 16, with good words and fair speeches. That's how they
get you. Well, don't you want a good marriage?
Who doesn't? You're married. You want a good
marriage? No, I don't want a good marriage. Well, of course you
do. How about finances? You should have good finances
now. That's good. Is there anything wrong with
that? Anything you can say against good finances? It's just good words and fair
speeches. The problem is that's not what the church is intended
for. It's not what we're here for. They use fair words and good
words and fair speeches to to deceive. Like in our day, listen,
like in our day, they say believers who profess faith in Christ alone
is all their salvation. That's good. Nobody's denying
that. Name a church that denies faith
that you need to believe on Christ. Name any church, even the Catholic
Church. They say you need to believe.
No church denies you need to believe on Christ. But now What
you need after you believe, what is that? You need discipleship
classes. You need to learn how to be a
disciple. You need accountability partners.
You need somebody to watch over you. So when you start to feel
like you need, like alcoholics have, you know, they have a sponsor.
The church says you need a sin sponsor. You need somebody to
help you when you feel like you're going to sin. You need to give
them a call. And they'll help you out. Accountability partners. I mean, this isn't friends. I'm
not. This is not joking. This is actually taking place.
This is actually taking place. This is. What you need is church
discipline. You need somebody to to watch
over you and make sure that you're doing right. You need to progressively
sanctify yourself. You need to progressively become
holier by your obedience to the law or by your obedience to some
church creed or something. That's how you progress. You
become more acceptable with God. God's more pleased with you than
with those others. You sanctify yourself. You need
to enter into a covenant with God. You need to promise God. There was a whole movement, promise
keepers, remember? Men had to go in and promise to be faithful
to their wives. Didn't you promise that at the very beginning? You
have to keep promising that? Then you need somebody to help
you keep accountability of that? Yeah. You need to make a covenant
with God. Another one. And another one. Because how many times did you
break it in your mind? You need to make more covenants with God.
Now listen to what all those things have to do with this.
They're zealous in it. They really mean it. They're
sincere about it. But what all of these things
do is move you from looking to Christ and cause you to start
looking at yourself. That's all they want to do. They
move your eyes from Christ and you start looking within yourself. They move you from the simplicity,
the singleness of the gospel. How? Because believers are called
to look away from self and look to Christ. That's what we're
called to do, to look to Christ and away from ourselves. These men want to call you to
look away from Christ and look to your works, look to your obedience. They want you to be able to measure
your spirituality. Now, I know this. You want to
know if you've grown in grace, don't you? I want to know that.
I mean, how do I know I'm growing in grace? Well, listen to this. Are you something or nothing? Are you trying to be something?
Or do you know that you're nothing? To grow in grace is this, to
know that you're nothing. And Christ is everything. That's spiritual growth. It's
opposite of what religion tells you. If you grow in grace, you're
gonna feel more zealous, you're gonna feel more religious, you'll
feel righteous, you'll feel good. No, it's the opposite. You'll
feel bad. And then what he said in the
covenant in Jeremiah, he said, you shall loathe yourselves. You loathe yourself. Do you see what you really are? Do you see how beautiful he is? Are you totally dependent on
him? Absolutely. Totally. Does your
works have any merit whatsoever to get you into the presence
of God? You that grow in grace, you know
it's not. There's nothing in you. Christ is all. That's the
measure of growth. Well, I stopped doing this, and
I started doing this, and I'm getting better in my finances,
and my marriage is looking real good, so obviously I'm growing.
Nope. That is no measurement whatsoever
of growth. That may be happening. You may be good in your finances.
Your marriage may be well, but that's no measurement of your
spiritual growth. The measurement of your spiritual
growth is the abasement of yourself and the exaltation of Jesus Christ. Isn't that what John the Baptist
said? He must increase and I must decrease. That's spiritual growth. I said this before, Paul said
this, when he was beginning, he said, I am the least of the
apostles. That's saying something, isn't it? He who wrote the most
says this, I'm the least of the apostles. Later on, when he grew
more, you know what he said? I am the least of all the saints. When he was full grown in that
prison, ready to die, he said, I am the chief of sinners. That's spiritual progress. A
basement of self and always exalting Christ. Now, religion wants you
to look at yourself. They want to look at your growth.
And by their success, when they start doing this and stop doing
this, that's how they turn then and measure you, right? They've
attended all the disciple classes. They've graduated from having
an accountability partner to being an accountability partner. They're preaching now. They're
the ones taking over these groups. They've grown. They're so grown. And what do they do? They turn
around and measure you. Now by what standard do they
measure you? By the standard of their success.
That's how they measure you. They'll look at what they've
done and they want you to come up to their level. Well see, I'm righteous. But
you're not yet there. You can be if you attend all
these classes that I attended, you do all these things I did,
then you could come up to me. And so by their success, they
in turn measure other believers success or failures based on
their own obedience. And my friend, listen to me,
they are zealous. They are zealous to affect you,
to draw you to this doctrine, to believe that they are doing
you and God a service. And so, as Paul said, they are
zealous to affect you. They are zealous to affect you. But listen, but not in a good
thing. Not in a good thing. Paul, remember
in Romans chapter 10, In Romans chapter 10 he speaks
of his brethren. He said, My brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel that they might be saved.
I bear them record they have a zeal of God. Now listen, I'm
not denying their zeal. Neither was Paul. Paul was not
denying the zeal of works religion. They're very zealous. I bear them record they have
a zeal. What's missing? Knowledge. Knowledge. for they being ignorant of the
righteousness of God." Now wait a second, that's a big statement.
He just said they're ignorant of the righteousness of God.
They're smart in a lot of things, but in this thing they're ignorant. Righteousness. Now how do we
know false religion is ignorant concerning the righteousness
of God? Because they go about to establish their own righteousness. Anybody is working hard to establish
their own righteousness, they're ignorant of the righteousness
of God. Why? Because Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. So these men have a zeal but
not according to knowledge. And I'm going to ask this because
this is happening. You that are disciples of Christ,
do you need discipleship classes? Do you need a class as to how?
How did you begin to be a disciple? Was it not by faith? Well, how
do you continue to be a disciple? Isn't it by faith? It is. End of class. And what's the means by which
disciples are constantly pointed to Christ to live by faith, preaching
of the gospel, the preaching of the gospel, not the preaching
of works, not the preaching of law, but the preaching of Christ. So we continue to follow Christ
by faith. We continue to follow Him and
love Him and love one another. We need to be strengthened and
encouraged to faith and love by the preaching of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, Him crucified. Why? This is the means God uses
to keep us from sin. You that are believers, I know
this. Little children, sin not. Isn't
this your desire? It is my desire, the desire of
every believer not to sin. What is it that constrains us
from sin? What keeps us from sin? Is it
accountability partners? You find that in here? Anywhere? No. Listen to me. It is the love
of Christ that constraineth us. That's it. If God give us a view
of what his love really is, That keeps us from sin. Not some law, not some rule or
regulation of the church, it is the love of Christ. Why do
you think I continually preach the love of Christ? I continually
tell you of the love of Christ. I tell you of the love of the
father in election, the love of the son in redemption, the
love of the spirit in quickening us and keeping us. I tell you
of his love and it's that love that constrains us, not rules,
not laws. We have a law. What is that faith
and love? That's our law, not the law of
Moses. So we're strengthened and encouraged
through the preaching of the gospel. And so then all false
teachers are zealous men to show an outward show of religious
zeal. They're zealous in their zealousness. They measure their spirituality
by how much they're zealous. And look at me, I've made this
same error. I've seen men who are much more
zealous than I am. I've told you of several of them.
A man by the name of Waylon Brooks, he was my best friend. We studied
the word of God together. We were in our 20s. And man,
that guy, I don't think I've ever met a more zealous man. He'd walk up to complete strangers
and start preaching the gospel to them. He just would. He'd
do it. And you know what that made me
feel like? It made me feel like I was less of a Christian. Man,
I wish I had that zeal. So don't think we aren't jealous
of their zeal. But I'll tell you what, my brother,
or this man, Waylon, he eventually, the gospel was not sufficient
for him. These men that are zealous, eventually the gospel will not
be sufficient. And they've got to move on to
a higher plane, a higher level of understanding, a higher level
of righteousness. As far as I know, he's preaching
a Pentecostal gospel right now. Lost. Never knew Christ the whole
time we were together. He never knew Christ. I thought
he did. And I was jealous of what he
had. I know that false religion is
zealous about their zealousness, but they only pretend to love
God's people and Christ. But the truth is that they only
desire self-promotion. Self-promotion. They say, look
at what I'm doing to serve God. They're like that Pharisee that
prayed thus with himself. Remember him? He said, Father,
This guy's dressed up in all of the robes of a Pharisee. They had the Word of God written
on their sleeves. And there he is in the middle
of a crowd, raising his hands, looking to God. Oh, God, I'm
thankful. And what did everybody say? Oh,
man, look at him. Look how righteous
this guy is. God, I thank you. Oh, he's so
thankful. Look at him, how thankful he
is. What is he thankful for? I'm so thankful. I'm not like
everybody else. I'm so thankful that I'm not
like these sinners around me. I fast twice in the week, give
tithes of all that I have, and I'm not like that publican over
there. I thank you. I thank God that
I'm not such a great sinner. Now listen, you be honest, have
you not ever thought that in your head? You look at somebody
who's a pedophile, somebody who's a murderer, somebody who's a
rapist, and you look at them and say, man, thank God I'm not
like that. You are. The truth is you are. Now you've not committed that
because God's kept you from it, but that's your heart. That's
who you are. Ain't no difference between you
and Him. You figure that out? Do you really know that? I know our flesh wants to be
better than everybody else. It just does. The truth is it
ain't. These zealous men, they're like
those Pharisees who scan land and sea to make a proselyte.
They'll spend everything they have. They'll give all their
time and money. They're zealous to make one convert. Somebody said the lie will go
around the world twice before the truth puts on the shoes. They're zealous to get out there
and they're quick. They've got a business model. That's what
they're going off of. This seminary, that's what they're
teaching, business models. They're using the church like
a business, how to grow your church, how to grow your church,
expand your church. He said, you scan land and sea
to make one proselyte, and when you've made him, you've made
him twofold more a child of hell. Why? Because they only seek to
exalt themselves and their religious feelings. Isn't this what it's
about? I don't feel religious when I'm
hearing the gospel, so I need something to pep me up. I need
something to make me energized. No, you want something to appeal
to your flesh. This is what they desire zealously
to do, to appeal to your flesh. And what do they do by this?
They set themselves above others. It encourages men to look to
their works and their obedience, It encourages men to measure
themselves by others instead of seeing and rejoicing that
Christ is all our righteousness. I don't want to look at myself.
What do you see when you turn within? What do you see when
you look within? I'm like Newton. When I turn and look within,
all I see is violence and corruption and darkness. That's what I see
when I look within. When I look at my preaching,
you know what I see? I see sin mixed with all I do. But my hope is in the obedience
of Christ. My righteousness was made by
Him and I don't add anything to it by preaching. Nothing. By doing good things, I add nothing
to His righteousness, nothing. He is all my righteousness. His
blood cleanseth me from all my sin. It's His blood that makes
me acceptable with God. And this should be the focus
of our preaching, not works, not our obedience, but His. We should preach, not that we
are progressively made holy, but that Christ has made us holy. Christ made me holy. Are you
holy? Yes. Well, you don't look like
it. Nope, sure don't. Why? Christ made me holy. It was the will of God that sanctified
me. It was the blood of Christ that
sanctified me. It was the spirit of God that
sanctified me. And my obedience does not sanctify
me. My obedience doesn't add to His
sanctification. Therefore, the preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ Preaching of the gospel of Christ causes us to cease from self-promotion. How does a church cease from
this? Simply by doing this, preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ. You cannot promote yourself and
preach the gospel. The gospel in its very nature
exalts Christ and abases you. That's what it does. And so if
we just preach the gospel, guess what? You're abased. If we just
preach the gospel, Christ is exalted. So you cannot have this,
this, what these men were doing, self-promotion, preaching the
gospel. The gospel sets forth the eternal
love and grace of God in saving sinners. Well, that's good news
for one group of people, sinners. Well preacher, I was a sinner,
but I'm not a sinner anymore. You don't have any idea what
this gospel is. If that's really truly how you
feel, well I'm getting better. You don't have any clue what
it is to be a sinner. Christ came to save sinners.
Paul said, of whom I am, what? I am, right now, in my apostleship. I'm about to die and go be with
Christ and yet right now I'm the chief of sinners. Why? Because Christ came to save sinners. So the gospel sets Christ above
all while the legalist promotes himself. He promotes an outward
show of zeal and religious exercise rather than preaching the gospel.
The gospel of Jesus Christ testifies that the flesh does not get better.
Now you got that? The flesh does not get better.
If you are hoping the flesh is going to get better, I've got
some bad news for you. It will never get better. You hope one day that you're
just going, it's going to be easier to live a righteous life. I got sad news for you. It's
not. Jesus said that which is born of flesh is what? What is
it? Flesh. He's telling you that nature
that is born in you is going to live and die flesh. It doesn't get better. But here's our hope, that which
is born of spirit is what? Spirit. And later on, Paul in
this gospel is going to tell us about this struggle in this
epistle. of Galatians is going to tell
us about this struggle. The flesh lusts against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh, and these two are contrary one
to another, so that you can't do what you want. The flesh can't
do what it wants. The spirit can't do what it wants.
It's a stalemate, a constant stalemate. Why? So that we should be a base,
and Christ should be exalted. That's why it's four. Never gets
better. But God in grace can cause a
new man to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ. But listen
to me, when grace is preached, it never exalts itself. It never
exalts man. Grace never teaches that salvation
comes by works or obedience. Go to Titus. I know I'm running
behind Titus. Look at Titus with me. Grace
of God teaches us something. So when I'm preaching the grace
of God, I'm preaching Christ to you. Listen, it teaches us
something. Look at this in verse 12 of chapter
2 of Titus, verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared unto all men. And it has a purpose.
Look, teaching us. That denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world. Looking to our great improvement. Looking to our sobriety. Looking
to our righteous. No. Looking to who? That blessed
hope. Looking to Christ. That's what
grace teaches you. Grace teaches us to live soberly
and righteously and godly in this present world. How? By looking
to Christ. By not measuring our sobriety.
Not measuring our righteousness and our obedience. Well, I turned
from that worldly lust today. I'm doing pretty good. No, looking
to Christ. Looking by faith to Christ as
all our righteousness, wisdom, and sanctification and redemption.
By faith, trusting that He will come one day and robe us completely
in His righteousness. Trusting that we are sanctified
by the will of God, the blood of Christ, and the Spirit of
God. Trusting that His one offering has perfected forever us and
redeemed us from the curse of the law. And now we live by faith
in Christ that he's the wisdom of God. But the preaching of law and
works, no matter how zealous, only exalts man. Paul said they
zealously affect you. How they, by preaching the law,
they zealously affect you. Paul says in Colossians, which
things, he's talking about following the law, which things indeed
have a show of wisdom. Now look at them. Look at false
religion and tell me it doesn't have a good show. They don't
put on a good show. They do. They put on a good show. You
want to be entertained? They're your people. They'll
entertain you. They'll excite you. They put on a show of wisdom
and will worship and humility, neglecting the body. These outward
shows of wisdom, they only are outward humility, not real humility. Not into any honor to the satisfying
of flesh. In other words, there's no end
to it. What's exciting this week will
not be exciting next week. Gotta do something new. And I want you to listen to this,
you that believe on Christ, all who preach law and legalism,
all who preach a false freewill works religion, all of them. All who profess to believe that
salvation is by grace, but in some measure revert to the law.
I want you to know this, they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Enemies. They're not friends.
They're enemies. Matter of fact, that's what Paul
says in Philippians chapter three, those who revert back to the
law in any measure are enemies of he said, I say this weeping
because a mass majority of this religious world that we live
in are enemies of the cross. They believe they're their friends.
They're zealous, but they're enemies. And this is what I'm talking
about reform theology. Reform theology is they believe,
they say they believe the gospel. They believe in the absolute
depravity of man. They believe that. They believe
in the unconditional election of the Father. They believe in
the election. They believe in the limited atonement of Jesus
Christ, that his atonement was only for the elect. They believe
in the irresistible power of the Holy Spirit in quickening
and saving and keeping the sinner. They believe these things. They
believe in the perseverance of the saints, that all the elect
shall be saved and persevere. Here's the fly in the ointment,
friends. Here's the poison in the well. And you got a glass
of water, right? It's crystal clear, 100% nice
filtered water. You put one drop of poison in
it, you wanna drink it? Here's the poison. That you must
finish your salvation by your obedience to the law. If that is what they are preaching,
they're an enemy of the cross. And I'll tell you this, many
are sitting under reformed theology that have no clue. And I imagine
some pastors that are preaching in those reformed churches, maybe
they don't even know what they're preaching. Maybe they're ignorant
about it, I don't know. I'm just saying those who know,
they're an enemy. But these false teachers will
seek to use the souls of men in order to exalt themselves.
Listen, they zealously affect you, not well. Yes, they would exclude you that
you might affect them. Now, everybody that, when they
get into these exciting programs at first is excited. Everybody's
all excited. Everybody wants to do the work
for Jesus, and they get out there. But soon, somebody's gonna have
to take charge of you. Somebody, other than the pastor,
is gonna have to watch over you. Now, get this, they're called
enforcers, and I'm serious, this is happening. In Reformed churches,
they have these people called enforcers. And what they do,
if you don't start showing up for church, they'll come knocking
on your door asking you where you've been. I know of a church right now
that instead of a Wednesday evening worship service, they had a Dave
Ramsey financial group meeting. Why? Because eventually they're
going to want your W-2s to make sure you're giving enough. Say I'm wrong. I've seen it. This is what they zealously affect
you. That you might affect them. That's what they want. They want
their pews full and their coffers full. And they'll do anything
to make sure you're there and giving. Oh, they zealously affect you
to exclude you. Who wants to be excluded again?
Who wants to be excluded? You're in this church, and you're
not giving right, and everybody's looking at you. Eric, you didn't give your 10%.
You must be a substandard Carl Christian. I'm serious, this
is exactly how, they exclude you, and then what do you feel
like? Oh man, I gotta give more. so that I can be in the group,
so that I can be a super spiritual Christian like them. They exclude
you so that you might affect them. Look what I did for Eric,
I got him back in, you see that? I made him start coming to church
more. These men appear to care. They
don't care about anything but themselves. And they have no love for Christ
or his gospel. They got no more room for it.
Pretty soon, there's not gonna be any Christ preached in a place
like that. I'm gonna end with this. Look at verse 18. But, here's some good news. It
is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. The problem is not zeal. It's what you're zealous about. False religion is zealous about
your words and your obedience. Gospel preachers are zealous
about one thing, preaching the gospel. I want you to understand your
freedom in Christ. I want you to know your liberty. I dare not want to put anyone
under bondage. I want you to know how free you
are. You believe in Christ, you realize that that's a liberty,
that not everybody has that. You're free to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. So thankful for that, because
my faith is mixed with so much fear and unbelief, but yet I'm
free to believe. I'm free to access God anytime
I want to. Anytime I want to, I have access
to God. I'm free. I'm free to ask Him to forgive
me of my sins. And He's free to forgive me of
my sins. I'm free to tell you you're not
a slave but a son. I'm not seeking you to follow
me. I'm zealous about this. I don't want you to follow me.
I want you to follow Christ. I want you to love Him. I want
you to serve Him. I want you to look to Him and
not yourself, not me or anybody else. I want you to look to Him.
That's what I'm zealous about. That's a good thing. He said, not only when I'm present
with you. Look, I want you to know this when I'm not present
with you. I want you to know this when you go home. I want
you to know this in the midst of your trials and your troubles
and your afflictions that Christ has set you free. And I beg you, I'm warning you
concerning them. They desire to zealously affect
you, but not in a good thing. They want to put you under bondage. And pay attention, there's nothing
that feels better to your flesh than bondage. Strange, isn't
it? It's just so. God help us and
keep us under the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray God will bless
this. Let's stand, be dismissed, and
pray. Our Father, dismiss us with your
mercies and blessings. Pour out your Spirit. Keep us
from such evils and appoint us only to Christ. Help us to be
abased and Christ to be exalted in our minds and hearts. Help
us to believe and to love one another, even as you have given
us commandment. I pray, Father, for the grace
and mercy upon your people, that those who have turned to this
zealous, false religion that you would be gracious to restore
them. I pray you do it for your own
glory. In Jesus' name.